European Union institutions have informally agreed on a new enforcement mechanism aimed at online platforms that import products judged to be unsafe or non-compliant. The European Parliament and the EU Council said in a joint statement on Thursday that the measure is part of a broader reform of the EU Customs Code.
The stated objective is to address the arrival of large volumes of low-cost, potentially unsafe goods entering the EU market through digital marketplaces. Regulators singled out platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress as examples of services that have been used to channel such products into the single market.
"Systematic and repeated non-compliance will lead to stricter penalties of up to 6% of annual imports and the suspension of an online e-commerce platform. The goal: an internal market that no longer leaves platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress untouched while putting massive amounts of non-compliant goods on the European market and unfairly competing with our businesses," said European Parliament official Dirk Gotink in a statement. "This will make the single market significantly safer and fairer for consumers and businesses," he added.
Under the informal agreement, authorities would be able to impose significant financial penalties on platforms found to be systematically and repeatedly failing to prevent imports of unsafe products. In the most severe cases, the measure would allow for the suspension of an online e-commerce platform from operating in the single market.
Officials framed the policy as a consumer-safety and fairness measure aimed at protecting both buyers and EU-based businesses that compete with cross-border sellers. The text of the joint statement links the enforcement provisions directly to the reform package for the EU Customs Code, indicating that the rules are being folded into that legislative process.
Details on implementation, enforcement timelines and exact thresholds beyond the cited penalty rate are not set out in the joint statement. The institutions described the agreement as informal, which implies that the terms will be incorporated into the formal legislative work on the Customs Code before becoming final and binding.
Separately, the article also contained a promotional block referencing the ticker BABA and an AI-driven stock evaluation tool called ProPicks AI; that material presented BABA as an example used by the tool but did not provide regulatory or policy analysis related to the Customs Code reform.